CrossFit is leading to a huge revival for a once-disappearing fitness brand

Nike has its famous "just do it" slogan, encouraging everyone to
work hard to be his or her very best. Under Armour has exploded
thanks to its underdog-overcoming-the-odds marketing.
But what about Reebok?

The company had long faded into what seemed to be like the abyss
of that athletic world, but all of that has been changing with
the help of CrossFit.

As Don Howard writes on retail blog The Robin Report, the brand formed an
official 10-year relationship with CrossFit in 2011.

Howard writes about how Reebok decided to gather data about who
the CrossFit customer was — specifically, what his or
her body type was like. Howard explains that the
company utilized consulting and data firm Alvanon to create 3D
body scans of 300 CrossFit participants to determine the scope of
sizes. This helped the company figure out more about how make
patterns for its CrossFit line.

This was particularly unique at the time. "At the time,
there wasn’t a lot of information about the body types of the
CrossFit athlete," Michael Morganti, Reebok's,
director of pattern apparel, said to The Robin Report — meaning
that, CrossFitters were likely wearing clothes that were
ill-suited for the strenuous training they did.

Howard notes that "fit can, and should, be a major
factor in garment development. Indeed the fit factor can make the
difference between a dissatisfied consumer who will never buy
from that brand again and a satisfied customer who will reward
good fit with repeated business."

After all, a CrossFit athlete may have a different body type than
a yogi or barre enthusiast or even a diehard runner. By
specializing in a vastly growing sport, Reebok — which is
owned by Adidas — has helped differentiate itself, something
that's crucial in order to survive retail's bloodbath.

A photo posted by @reebok on Jul 22, 2016 at 11:16pm PDT on
Jul 22, 2016 at 11:16pm PDT

"How we differentiate ourselves — it's all we do, it's
what we do," Brand President Matt O'Toole said to Business
Insider in an interview in November. "Look at the big brands.
They're kind of moonlighting in fitness, and then you
have Lululemon or Sweaty Betty — brands like that are
really catering to a much older and mature consumer. And the net
of it is, we’ve been able to carve out a very unique identity in
tough social fitness in this space."